Record-Setting?

  The NFL has reached the 10 game mark in its 20234 season. The Kansas City Chiefs remain undefeated—barely. KC leads the AFC. The Detroit Lions have one loss—barely. Detroit leads the NFC. 

Besides KC, the teams expected to be in playoff spots in the AFC had the season ended last week were Buffalo, Houston, Baltimore, and the LA Chargers. The surprises are Pittsburgh, in first place in the AFC North and Denver, the third place team in the AFC West. 

Yet both those teams merit the spots they are in. Pittsburgh has become a dynamic offensive team with Russell Wilson fully recovered from his training camp injury. The defense is very strong, making the Steelers a legitimate force in their division. 

However, the Steelers have a daunting schedule to finish the season. In a scheduling oddity where they haven’t played any intra-division opponents until this late in the season, Pittsburgh plays division foes Baltimore, Cleveland and Cincinnati twice. 

If that isn’t daunting enough, the non-division teams they play are Philadelphia and those Kansas City Chiefs who come to Pittsburgh on Christmas Day, a Wednesday, four days after the Steelers travel to Baltimore for a game in the Ravens Nest. 

Should Pittsburgh survive this gauntlet, then they are a most worthy playoff team. For on this past Sunday, it took a fortuitous spot and a booth review of a fourth down play by Washington to secure a one point victory over a very good Commanders squad. 

Denver gets the too bad, so sad award for losing Sunday’s game in Kansas City. The Broncos, behind rookie Bo Nix and quarterback, fought the Chiefs hard. Hard enough that the Broncos were in position to win the game and knock KC from the unbeaten ranks with a game-ending field goal. Almost a chip shot.

Except that KC found a way to block the kick and preserve the victory. Good for the Chiefs, a possibly deflating loss for Denver. Going forward, the schedule is not light. If they need a win to get into the playoffs on the final Sunday, it would be over KC at Mile High.

Denver’s main competitors for the last Wild Card slot are Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Miami. All currently have below .500 records and are in search of their identities. 

In the NFC, two other NFC North teams besides the Lions are in line for the playoffs. Minnesota and Green Bay are legitimate teams with good quarterbacks at the helm. Even the Chicago Bears, experiencing growing pains and coaching problems, can be spoilers in such a top heavy division. 

Meanwhile, Detroit continued to build on the successes they have had with Jared Goff at quarterback. To me, he is the NFL M.V.P. thus far. Goff engineered a fourth quarter comeback in Houston which resulted in a significant road win over the AFC South leaders. 

Philadelphia and Washington are the class of the NFC East. Dallas suffered a great loss with Dak Prescott out for the remainder of the season, but the Cowboys are a flawed franchise, beginning with the owner, Jerry Jones. The New York Giants are as big a flop as the New York Jets, with whom they share Met Life Stadium. 

Out West, it is the surprising Arizona Cardinals who have gotten everybody’s attention. Beating the Jets soundly at home looks really good; Marvin Harrison, Jr. is the real deal at wide receiver. I don’t think the Cardinals are a fluke. A lot of football has to be played—San Francisco, Seattle and the Los Angeles Rams all remain in contention for the division title, although the Rams looked bad on Monday night at home against the Dolphins. 

In the NFC South, Atlanta leads the pack. As Kirk Cousins goes, so goes the Falcons. The schedule does the Georgia team no great favors. While the Giants, Raiders and Panthers are to be played, so too does ATL have to travel to Denver this weekend and visit Minnesota and Washington while hosting the Chargers and Panthers. Should the Falcons fall from their perch, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers behind Baker Mayfield and New Orleans with a healthy Derek Carr might return to its early positive form and make a run for the NFC South crown. 

The highlight games for this weekend include Washington at Philadelphia on Thursday night; Baltimore at Pittsburgh early on Sunday then the Falcons at Broncos and a titanic rematch in Buffalo between Kansas City and the Bills. All important contests. If you are a pro football fan, then this is a good weekend to watch good football. 

Turning to college football, most schools have two or three games to play before conference championships. Four of the top five are Big Ten schools. #1 Oregon has only a road trip to Wisconsin before ending the season at home versus Washington. Barring the unthinkable, the Ducks should be in Indianapolis to play the winner of Indiana and Ohio State, to be played on November 23 in Columbus. All three, plus Penn State are virtual locks for the twelve team playoff. 

By record, Texas is the best team in the SEC. Perhaps that is true. Tennessee may disagree with that, along with Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. If Georgia gets by Tennessee on Saturday in Athens, they have an easy opponent in UMass prior to hosting Georgia Tech, which knocked off ACC leader Miami last weekend, in a rivalry game. Ole Miss is on the road at Florida in The Swamp and meets Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl.  Alabama has Mercer and Auburn at home and goes to Norman to face a downtrodden Oklahoma. 

It is Texas which clearly has it the roughest. This weekend is a renewal of an old and bitter rivalry as the Longhorns go to Fayetteville to take on the Razorbacks. A decent Kentucky comes to Austin. The finale is at College Station where the 7-2 Aggies have been frothing to finally play their rival which they left behind in the Big 12. A&M could dash Texas’ SEC title hopes; the ‘Horns should make it through to the playoffs. 

Notre Dame appears to be a lock for the playoffs, although they tangle with unbeaten Army on November 23rd in South Bend. Miami needs to recover from its shocking loss; I don’t know the tie breakers in the ACC, but SMU is in control and it is between Clemson and the U as to who plays in the Charlotte title contest and which team maybe makes the playoffs. 

BYU and Colorado appear headed to a showdown in the Big 12. Coach Prime, a.k.a. Deion Sanders has resurrected the Buffaloes and will possibly be heading to the NFL with his son who will be a very high draft pick. 

Other worthy playoff teams might be Boise State and Washington State. Both play Oregon State in the final two games, so the Beavers might determine which team goes to the playoffs. 

There is a long way to go. It’s going to be an exciting finish. The selections might raise an eyebrow or two. Then the playoffs will begin and the real fun will start. 

As the Emirates NBA Cup is underway, it is time to notice the start of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics. All red hot out of the gate, with the Cavs unbeaten and the others have no more than three losses. Phoenix may have some difficulty with Kevin Durant out of the lineup. Ditto OKC with big man Chet Holmgren sidelined with a fractured tailbone. The Lakers are 4-0 at home; Lebron James is playing like the best player in the world not named Victor Wembanyama, who merely scored 50 points almost effortlessly on Wednesday night for San Antonio. 

I won’t get into the rest of the league. Too mediocre right now. 

Finally—someone give the Winnipeg Jets a saliva test. Entering Thursday’s game in Tampa, the Jets sported an incredible 15-1 record. Whether it is the start of the season or any stretch during it, that is an amazing feat. 

But isn’t playing the games what it is all about—record setting?

It's All About The Money

  Money. The root of all evil, it is said. Can’t live without it. Or as the late sage Yogi Berra once said: “If you get hurt and miss work it won’t hurt to miss work and they give you cash which is just as good as money.” I bet AFLAC paid Yogi handsomely to be himself. And remember, older New York metro area residents, the WABC radio commercial for Dennison, The Men’s Clothier, located in Union, New Jersey—“Just bring money. Money talks, nobody  walks…”

It is the almighty dollar which was front and center in the recent Presidential election. Inflation has been hurting almost every pocketbook in some capacity, and the populace let be known that they don’t like how much it costs to live on a daily basis. Except that there is a monied class which seems unaffected by the cost of living. 

That would be the athlete and the team owner. Somehow they seem to be surviving okay. Together. For now, until the next labor negotiations, when invariably there will be the specter of a strike when the players want more of the pot and the owners are unwilling to cede a dime of their vast riches. 

A few things provoked this rant. First, in baseball, this is free agency season and the number one topic is where will mega-talent Juan Soto be landing and which team will be anteing up the big bucks for his services. The lineup of suitors is a hierarchy of the rich franchises—the Yankees, who Soto played for in 2024; the crosstown Mets, with perhaps the richest owner in the game in Steve Cohen, who is willing to break the bank and sign the biggest fish to make the biggest splash; Toronto a long shot, is supposed to be proposing a mega deal; and other interested parties such as the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, suddenly money-infused Baltimore Orioles with a rich and very determined ownership; and even his first club, Washington. 

Let me say this—this courtship is madness. The sum of $700 million dollars over 10 years for a baseball player is patently absurd. I can’t wait to learn how much, if not all of it will be guaranteed, if his super agent Scott Boras needs to convince the feeding frenzy how worthwhile their deal is going to be. 

Last year it was Shohei Ohtani who was going to become a very wealthy ballplayer when his time in Anaheim was up. We now know that the Dodgers spent a ton of money, wisely deferred by Ohtani and his agent, to secure a World Championship. For this is the here and now, and whatever sum will be paid to the Japanese slugger in the future will have been well worth it. It brought a championship in the first year. 

But let’s look a little closer at Ohtani. He’s already two surgeries into his career—the first  was a major elbow procedure, the second one he has had for his UCL, which foreclosed him from pitching or playing the outfield this past season. Then in the World Series, Ohtani partially dislocated his left, non-throwing shoulder in a headfirst slide into second base. This week he had surgery to repair his labrum as a result of the injury, and simultaneously had a procedure done to his foot. 

While the Dodgers have the belief that Ohtani will be ready by Spring Training, will he suffer any setbacks and will this further delay his return to pitching? Could it be that Ohtani is partially damaged goods right now and that even if he rehabs well, his long-term future may have become a bit more murky? 

There are so many players who end up injured and have to go under the knife. “Tommy John” surgery, named after the pioneering pitcher who resurrected his career after a devastating arm injury, has been a godsend to baseball. It is almost routine that big league arms undergo such surgery. What is more frightening is how many have had the surgery out of necessity to try to make it to the next level—whether it is the pros or college—to fulfill a dream.

I look at another great player—Mike Trout. The Angels went way beyond their budget to lock up the New Jersey native with a lucrative deal. Since Trout inked his contract, he has been on the Injured List far more than on the field slugging home runs. He may have been the best player in baseball at the time LAA locked him up, but now he too is a question mark as to how well he will perform as he goes, let alone remain on the field and help make the Angels respectable if not competitive. 

So now Soto is the chosen one. He didn’t outperform Yankees teammate Aaron Judge this season; Judge is the presumptive American League M.V.P. Yet Judge’s $360 million deal over 9 years, averaging $40 million per year, is going to be paltry compared to Soto’s fleecing some franchise. 

Hal Steinbrenner, principal owner of the Yankees and son of the legendary George, who made his club into a powerhouse through free agency spending and shrewd drafting, has to come up with a figure he can live with which he thinks General Manager Brian Cashman can negotiate a deal to keep Soto in Yankees pinstripes. If that is possible, given the greed of Cohen and the bargaining power which Soto yields in this crazy marketplace. To satisfy the Yankees fans who are rabid after the collapse of the team in the 2024 Fall Classic. 

But what if the Yankees took a different tack and reduced the payroll slightly and bringing in talent through trades and some free agency. This would actually make the team stronger and reduce the already brutal luxury tax (actually called the Competitive Balance Tax) enacted on the teams which overspend compared to the smaller market teams where revenue is not as great as in New York, LA, Chicago or Atlanta. Play Judge in right field where he does not burn out like he did in center field in 2024. Put Jasson Domínguez in his natural spot in center field. Even think about bringing back Alex Verdugo to patrol left field—he would love to play more in the Bronx. Shore up the pitching and garner more power at first and third base. 

Let Steve Cohen blow through his billions and put the bulls eye squarely on his team. If the Yankees can work towards the future and not have constant payroll issues, then I am all for it. 

What also threw me was that it is renewal time for my New York Jets season tickets for 2025. Talk about continually overpaying for a very diminished product while there is only one Super Bowl trophy on display at team headquarters in Florham Park, and that goes back to the 1969 season. I fortunately didn’t foolishly spend for a seat license for the privilege of sitting in the lower bowl of the sterile Met Life Stadium. 

While it is my unfortunate goal to be a season ticket holder for 50 years, which will be reached in two years, it galls me to see that the franchise is worth $6.9 billion and I am paying a robust amount to support the operating expenses of $138 million. And the team once more has come out flat despite the promises of quarterback Aaron Rodgers to bring the team to the Super Bowl. Which simply isn’t happening given the number of teams which are better than NYJ in the AFC, where there is a team in Kansas City that is undefeated and has a QB going to be  paid $450,000,000 over 10 years, with a $10, 000,000 signing bonus and over $140,000,000 is guaranteed. 

From time to time I remind myself of the cost of watching these athletes perform. Whether it is in person, which costs plenty in ancillary amounts for food and beverage, travel costs and clothing to wear in the changing seasons. (I cannot wait until I complete my trips to all 30 MLB franchises with a visit to iconic Fenway Park; that Boston trip is going to cost me a lot of money just with the ridiculous ticket prices with Fenway’s limited capacity) Or the home viewing on cable or streaming channels which adds plenty to the monthly expenses. Again, this is plain absurdity. 

Is the revenue sustainable? We as a nation have faced inflation and avoided a recession or, even worse, a depression. But what if this economy suddenly tanks? What will happen to the pay for these stars in all leagues—Lebron James and Steph Curry come to mind with bloated salaries—when the fans revolt over the costs of attending a game or watching exclusively on Amazon or Peacock? 

And don’t think that the colleges are immune from this money train. They overpay coaches while underpay professors. Players receive scholarships but are enriched by name-image-likeness payola. 

I was tracking the cost of a ticket for this weekend’s Washington-Penn State game in 

State College. Three weeks ago a nosebleed seat was going for nearly $350. Until the Nittany Lions lost to nemesis Ohio State. That same ticket is now available for $95. 

Rutgers, now fighting for bowl survival, plays at home Saturday when suddenly hot Minnesota comes to Piscataway. A ticket can be had for $5.00. And it is more likely that somebody will purchase the $95 seat than go to Piscataway for $5.00. which was the cost I paid as a senior for last week’s F&M-Kean football game. Watch for the increasing number of empty seats at most NFL games—a sign of the unaffordability of attending one game for everyday people. A ticket to MSG for a Knicks or Rangers game on the secondary market is astronomical while the New Jersey Devils continue to inundate me with requests to buy ticket packages because they need the revenue. 

The perspectives are skewered. The competition for the entertainment dollar has reached an entirely new level. People are far more comfortable watching movies at home, yet they will willing travel to Canada to watch Taylor Swift because a ticket is far more reasonable. When sanity will return is anybody’s guess. 

Moneyball was the nickname of a sabermetics-based philosophy which allowed the Oakland A’s to become highly competitive and thrive against the big market opposition. Over 20 years later, the A’s are still starving the payroll while gambling on a major windfall when the team moves to Las Vegas.

The movie was fantastic. The premise was fine. Yet we are in a different environment which will have to self-destruct for the good of sports. It’s just a matter of when. 

For now, it’s still all about the money. 

Nothing But Agita

  It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Sometimes, but not too often, there was some middle ground. Kinda sounds like the 2024 Presidential campaign, but this is a sports-themed blog and I am certainly not going there. Very diplomatic of me. 

My birthday was a day of happiness. It was the first day of the 2024 World Series. Long time opponents from the past—they hadn’t met in the Fall Classic since 1981. Lots of history here. Brooklyn and Ebbets Field; the LA Coliseum exhibition game which drew over 93,000 Angelenos to see Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and crew; Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine, which first hosted the West Coast/East Coast version of this tableau. And of course the three versions of Yankee Stadium—the House That Ruth Built; the refurbished version of the late 1970’s; and this century’s monolith. 

I had hopes that this might be the year that the Yankees would once more win it all. I had never been solidly convinced that this squad was a worthy champion. Winning the American League in the manner that they did made me want to believe in them. Then again, pyrite isn’t real gold. Just fools gold. 

So, after cake for my birthday celebration, it was time for baseball. The Yankees took it to LAD behind Gerrit Cole and playoff monster Giancarlo Stanton, who hid during the regular season yet reminded us once more why he was a rising star in Miami with almost unrivaled power at the plate. 

It was a pitcher’s duel between Cole and Jack Flaherty, a late season addition to a depleted Dodgers rotation. By default, he became the ace of the staff. This was a Game 1 which would head to extra innings. 

New York took a lead in the top of the 10th inning. Only to falter in the bottom of the frame. Manager Aaron Boone made a critical miscalculation, brining starter Nestor Cortes, nursing an arm injury which ultimately might require surgery, to face LA first baseman Freddie Freeman. 

Freeman had starred in the World Series when he was in Atlanta. Although he was nursing an ankle injury at the start of the Series, he was out there to help the Dodgers. (It was also later disclosed that Freeman played despite a very painful rib injury, too)

Did he ever. With one gigantic swing, Freeman sent a ball flying into the right field pavilion for a grand slam home run. Nobody had ever hit a walk off grand slam in the history of the World Series. Game 1 to LAD. In actuality, it was World Series to LAD. 

New York managed to go ahead in Game 2, but there was Freeman with a home run. He would hit homers in the first four games, which, along with one in his last World Series game while a member of the Braves, set a record. The Dodgers recovered to win Game 2, now up 2-0 with the games switching to Yankee Stadium.

Yankees players talked tough and were relying on the extra man in the stands. Some took their job too literally, trying to yank the ball out of Dodgers’ right fielder Mookie Betts glove  when he went over the wall and into the stands to make a catch in foul territory in Game 4. 

Still, the Yankees bats weren’t coming alive while the LAD pitching was neutralizing much of the power. Sure fire American League M.V.P. Aaron Judge didn’t awaken from his disastrous at bats until game 4, and that was only momentary. 

With a 11-4 Game 4 blowout, NYY sought to do what no other team had done. When down 3-0, only four teams had made it to a Game 5. No team ever made it to a Game 6. The odds were stacked against the Yankees, no matter how much their power display gave its fans hope. 

With Cole on the mound, New York staked him to a 5-0 lead while he had given up no hits through four innings. Things looked promising, although I did say to my wife that this wasn’t enough runs. Was I ever prophetic. 

In an inning which will be remembered in World Series history like Boston’s Bill Buckner booting an easy grounder against the Mets which would have allowed the Red Sox to win in 1986, the Yankees completely unraveled. By the time the carnage was done—the errors in commission and omission—it was a tie score. 

NYY would forge ahead on a Stanton sacrifice fly. Only to have LAD come back to take the lead. For good. 

With Walker Buehler two days removed from starting in Game 3 coming on in the ninth inning to close the game out, the Yankees were finished. What epitomized the way the team petered out was how closer Luke Wilson ran out of gas in Game 5—over used and tired—finished in what was a game but futile effort. Season over. 

Now the Yankees have a lot of decisions to make about retaining personnel. Cole, Juan Soto, Anthony Rizzo, Gleyber Torres and Alex Verdugo may all be leaving the Bronx. The defense and fundamentals need to be shored up (see Cole not covering first on a Betts grounder to Rizzo which would have ended the inning without a run scoring instead of opening the flood gates). There cannot be intermittent power shortages, nor should reliance for extra base hits have been placed on the shoulders of young Anthony Volpe, whose grand slam ignited the Bombers in Game 4. 

Los Angeles was the best team in baseball. In my mind, San Diego was second, the Mets third, then the Yankees and Cleveland round out the top 5. The National League was the better league—all of the NL playoff teams were good and Houston plus the AL wild cards— Baltimore, Detroit  and Kansas City—simply didn’t match up with Philadelphia or Milwaukee. 

It looks like Boone will be back for another year. Same with GM Brian Cashman. I don’t know how any of the coaches might fare. Whatever group emerges in Tampa next Spring, it will be different . What won’t be gone is the sting of such a bitter defeat. 

The New York Jets needed to play better. Heading to Foxborough to take on the New England Patriots, NYJ had a chance to get back into the playoff race. Except that the team which cannot get out of the way of itself, gave its fans a clunker. 

A battered and bruised 6-2 Houston Texans team came to Met Life Stadium for a Thursday Night Football extravaganza. The Jets played the first half in a trance, drawing the ire of those in attendance. “Sell the team” chants were heard loud and clear on the Amazon broadcast—a not so veiled indictment of how poorly this team played and how owner Woody Johnson simply did not hire the right people to make the right decisions. 

The a funny thing happened. The defense took over and the offense awakened. Ancient Aaron Rodgers benefitted from a miraculous catch by wide receiver Garrett Wilson for a spectacular touchdown confirmed by a shin hitting in bounds after a replay review, along with a sideline sprint after a pass for a TD by Rodgers’ Green Bay favorite, Davante Adams, who somehow escaped concussion protocol after hitting his head on the unforgiving Met Life turf after being tackled hard. 

I am no more enthused over the Jets chances going forward. The schedule isn’t daunting, beginning with a road game in Arizona. 

The mentality has to be one game at a time. With the history of this team—losing to Denver and New England in winnable contests—are their chances really that good? Stay tuned. 

I did manage to see Franklin and Marshall thoroughly out play an undermanned Mc Daniel team. As my daughter astutely said, it was going to be a long bus ride back to Westminister after being vanquished 24-0 in a yawner of a game. 

I once more saw F&M at Kean University this Saturday, a mere four miles from my house. Kean wass 2-5;  I hoped the team could play better on the road—unlike when I saw them lose at The College of New Jersey in September (for the  first time since college, I will have seen F&M play football in September, October and November thanks to a schedule which placed the team in NJ twice—which never have happened before in my lifetime). F&M prevailed by a 34-14 score. Kean was better than Mc Daniel, which was shut out 42-0 Saturday at home by 8-1 Ursinus.

My college roommate remarked that maybe I should stick to college football. Maybe he’s right. The pros I root for have given me nothing but agita.